Thomas (Tom) Laughlin (born February 13, 1971 in Yonkers, New York and currently residing in Stamford, CT) is an American professional wrestler currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under its Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) brand. He is better known by his ring name, Tommy Dreamer.
| Tom Laughlin | |
|---|---|
| File:TommyDreamerPsych.jpg | |
| Born | February 13, 1971 Yonkers, New York |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Bobby Ocean T.D. Madison Tommy Dreamer |
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) |
| Billed weight | 265 lb (120 kg) |
| Trained by | Johnny Rodz |
| Debut | 1989 |
Career
Starting Out
Laughlin started wrestling in the New England area as Bobby Ocean against "Curly Moe" (a wrestler with a gimmick inspired by the Three Stooges) in 1989. He soon changed his name to T.D. Madison to team with G.Q. Madison as The Madison Brothers in IWCCW, where they won the tag team titles twice.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
He debuted as Tommy Dreamer in 1993 for Extreme Championship Wrestling and was a mainstay there until it closed in 2001. While there he was often considered "the heart" of ECW and a number of the best remembered moments from ECW involve him. Including attacking an opponent with a Shiwala wash (a car-washing brush) while ECW was being aired on SportsChannel America. The Shiwala attack was mostly a joke as infomercials for the Shiwala Wash were often aired on the same channel, sometimes right after the ECW show ended. He was also the first wrestler to kick out of "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka's Superfly Splash.
His original gimmick was that of a pretty boy, wearing suspenders and loose fitting tights. As time went on Dreamer evolved with the ECW mindset becoming more and more extreme. One of the catalysts for the change was his first major feud with The Sandman which saw him (kayfabe) accidentally hit The Sandman knocked a cigarette into his eye when he struck him with a Singapore cane. When The Sandman went down to the mat grabbing his eye Dreamer (seemingly) broke kayfabe by standing over what moments ago was his opponent and screaming about how he "didn't mean to do it" and that it was "an accident". In truth this was all a (rather revolutionary) planned out ECW angle that was designed to blur the line between real life and the world of wrestling.
Though the blind Sandman angle was his first major feud in ECW his most memorable came against Raven and started in April of 1995. The two, who had been (kayfabe) childhood friends, constantly brawled through ECW for over two years. They threw everything they had at each other, including Raven bringing another childhood friend Beulah McGillicutty out as a way to get into Dreamers head. Dreamer was unable to score a pinfall on Raven for the entire feud until he pinned Raven in a Loser Leaves Town match before Raven went to World Championship Wrestling.
He also feuded with Justin Credible and Shane Douglas while there, and was the main ECW representative in the ECW vs. United States Wrestling Association (USWA) feud with Jerry Lawler in 1997.
In 1999 Dreamer found himself actually teaming with his former blood enemy Raven when he returned to ECW. He would also become an ECW World Heavyweight Champion when he won the belt in 2000 from Taz, but then lose the belt just 18 minutes later to Justin Credible.
ECW would close its doors soon after and Dreamer would follow former ECW owner Paul Heyman to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2001.
World Wrestling Entertainment
While in the WWE, Dreamer won the WWE Hardcore Championship on several occasions. Dreamer would also renew his feud with Raven even picking up another win over him, this time in a loser leaves RAW match on June 24, 2002 which sent Raven to RAW's sister show, HEAT. Tommy Dreamer also did a short-lived angle where he ate disgusting things, which was based on the popular MTV television show Jackass.
As time went on Dreamer slowly began to drop off WWE TV and could be occasionally found wrestling on the independent circuit all over the world. Dreamer would occasionally appear to do guest commentary in WWE and went on to be forge a close association with some of WWE's training territories. This lead to him becoming a part of RAW's creative team and then, when his performers contract expired, a road agent.
Dreamer played a major part in the revival of ECW in WWE. He, along with Paul Heyman, booked the first One Night Stand pay-per-view event (Vince McMahon had most control over the second) and then Dreamer joined the extension "brand" as a part of the main roster.
During the build up to the relaunch of ECW Dreamer feuded with RAW's Edge and Mick Foley leading to a match at One Night Stand which saw Dreamer, Terry Funk and Beulah lose to Foley, Edge and Lita.
On July 8th, 2006, Laughlin released a very strong statement about the new ECW in his wwe.com commentary, Dreamers Diary Of Violence by saying quote, "I AM ANGRY, PISSED OFF AND TOTALLY FRUSTRATED ABOUT WHAT I HAVE BEEN SEEING IN ECW. I NEED TO SIT BACK AND DIGEST ALL OF THIS. IF I WRITE ABOUT WHAT IS IN MY HEAD, MY COLUMN WILL PROBABLY NO LONGER EXIST."
Since July 15, 2006, Tommy Dreamer's Diary of Violence reports: Due to recent events in ECW and on ECW.com, Tommy Dreamer's Diary of Violence has been suspended until further notice.
Personal life
On October 12, 2002 at the Lake Isle Country Club in Eastchester, New York, Laughlin married Trisa "Beulah McGillicutty" Hayes, with whom he later had twin girls, Brianna Laughlin and Kimberly Laughlin.
The twins appeared in a sixth season episode of "The Sopranos" (The Ride) as Domenica Baccalieri, Tony Soprano's baby niece.
Career Outside of wrestling
Tommy has appeared in comedy shows such as Comedy At Club 54
Tommy Dreamer makes a cameo in the adult film "Whack Attack 5" by Extreme Associates.
He and New Jack appeared together in an episode of the TV series "Early Edition" as bikers.
In Wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
- Spicolli Driver / Dreamer Driver (Death Valley driver)
- Dreamer DDT (Snap DDT)
- Sitout side powerslam
- Dream Cutter (Cutter)
- Tommyhawk (Reverse crucifix into cutter)
- Piledriver
- Signature foreign object: Barbed wire Wrapped 2x4
- Managers
- Nicknames
- "The Innovator of Violence"
- Theme music
- For his entire ECW career Dreamer used the Alice In Chains song Man in the Box for his theme music. At the 2005 One Night Stand he used an instrumental of the song performed by "Harry Slash & The Slashtones" and for the WWE vs. ECW special on June 7, 2006, he used a different instrumental edit of the "Man in the Box" theme by "Harry Slash & The Slashtones".
Championships and accomplishments
- Extreme Championship Wrestling
- 1-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion
- 3-time ECW Tag Team Champion (1-time with Johnny Gunn, 1-time with Raven, 1-time with Masato Tanaka)
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- 14-time WWE Hardcore Champion
- Other Titles
- 2-time ICCW Tag Team Champion (with G.Q. Madison)
- 1-time CWA Heavyweight Champion
- 1-time SPW Texas Heavyweight Champion
- 1-time BCW Can-Am Heavyweight Champion
- 1-time KYDA-Pro Heavyweight Champion
- 1-time IWA Hardcore Title
- 1-time BCW Tag Team Champion
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 184 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.